Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity ( GR), originally published in a 1916 paper, predicted that as a result of a body’s mass and motion, space-time would be distorted in certain ways around that body as it moves. While other predictions of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity (SR), such as the speed of light (‘c’), had previously been confirmed, only indirect evidence of this GR prediction had been found (via space telescope observations).

But now, after nearly 47 years of planning, operating, monitoring and analyzing the data from a special satellite-probe known as Gravity Probe B (GP-B), NASA scientists are announcing definitive confirmation of Einstein’s famous theoretical prediction of the deformation of space-time due to a mass in motion.

In the Einsteinian view, Space and Time are relative quantities (not absolutes), bound together into a “space-time fabric” (continuum), and their properties vary depending upon the movement of matter within them. Imagine a sheet of thin, flexible material upon which is placed a weighty marble that has been set in motion. As the marble moves over the sheet’s surface it creates an indented path in the material, and, as it also spins while it is doing this, it also creates small twists in this indented path — leaving a 4 dimensional “imprint” or pattern of this effect.

This wobbling in the probe’s axial orientation is known as “frame dragging” and the general warping of space-time is referred to as the vortex.

That, boiled down, is the theory, and it predicts that these twists and “eddies” should be present around our Earth as it spins on its axis and orbits the Sun.

A spinning spherical gyroscope in Earth orbit should wobble due to frame dragging.

The SP-B probe is/was both a simple and brilliantly conceived mission to prove or disprove this theoretical prediction. With four exquisitely calibrated gyroscopes on-board, and given a fixed orientation to a star as a reference point, GP-B’s axis could either remain fixed, or, if space-time is indeed warped by the Earth’s motion, drift periodically as it traced the twists in space-time.

Now, this difference in axial drift (relative to the reference star) is incredibly small — 0.041 arcseconds over a year (one arcsecond is 1/3600th of a degree). This tiny variance in angle to the reference point requires a super-precision of 0.0005 arcseconds. Also, the ping-pong ball sized globes of fused quartz and silicon that are the heart of the gyroscopes need to be super-spherical — varying from a ‘true sphere’ by only 40 atomic layers.

One of the super-spherical gyroscopes of Gravity Probe B.

And there were several other neat techno-tricks here: to insure no outside interference from the measuring technology, any change in the gyroscope sphere’s axis orientation had to be measured without anything actually touching it.

What’s more, the probe had to be designed to maneuver about the Earth “drag free”, that is, with out disturbing these space-time “eddies” created by the planet’s orbit and spin. In fact, the mission’s goal was so challenging in complexity that some 13 new technologies and techniques needed to be invented to make these “simple” measurements possible (to learn more about the probe’s unique features, check out A Pocket of Near Perfection.

And so, just how precise (and difficult) are these measurements in layman’s terms? According to Francis Everitt, principal investigator of the probe mission, this is “like measuring the thickness of a sheet of paper held edge-on 100 miles away.”

Elegant and precise and soon for the science history books.

But GP-B goes beyond even Einsteins; GP-B’s results have helped astrophysicists confirm that black holes also spin and act like wobbling gyroscopes .

NASA funding, planning and building of the Gravity Probe B mission began in 1963. The gravity probe experiment is a joint mission of NASA and Stanford University’s Physics Department which, to date, has engendered 86 Ph.D. theses, and has seen the participation of several hundred undergraduate and over 50 high-school students.

About the Author

Michael Ricciardi Michael Ricciardi is a well-published writer of science/nature/technology articles as well as essays, poetry and short fiction. Michael has interviewed dozen of scientists from many scientific fields, including Brain Greene, Paul Steinhardt, Arthur Shapiro, and Nobel Laureate Ilya Progogine (deceased).
Michael was trained as a naturalist and taught natural science on Cape Cod, Mass. from 1986-1991. His first arts grant was for production of the environmental (video) documentary 'The Jones River - A Natural History', 1987-88 (Kingston, Mass.).
Michael is an award winning, internationally screened video artist. Two of his more recent short videos; 'A Time of Water Bountiful' and 'My Name is HAM' (an "imagined memoir" about the first chimp in space), and several other short videos, can be viewed on his website (http://www.chaosmosis.net). He is also the author of the ebook 'Zombies, E.T's, and The Super Entity - A Selection of Most Stimulating Articles' and for Kindle: Artful Survival ~ Creative Options for Chaotic Times

The space must be distorted because of existence of Mass and motion.No matter would be plane and straight in the space including our human world absolutely.In some district,the distortion would be distinguished.
In our sight,there would be a long distence from one planet to our planet. However the distence would (must) be distorted.If we could found the nearest channel,the arrival to the planet would be more easy.
Though this just be a prediction,this also be the best way to explore the space.It is impossible for us ,the human to drive to other planet taking more time,perhaps that is hundreds of years.

I disagree – If you climb into a ship that can accelerate indefinitely at exactly 1 G and you head out into open space for 380 something days in a straight line until you achieve the speed of light (moving away from earth) – then you turn around and decelerate at 1 G for the same time until you are sitting still (with relation to earth but very far away)Then you repeat this process in the opposite direction until you arrive back at Earth a total of more than four or five years later. You A) will not have vaporized upon achieving the speed of light as they thought would happen fewer than a 100 years ago if you broke the speed of sound. B) All watches clocks and Calendars you brought with you would still be exactly synchronized with Earth watches,clocks and Calendars. Dream on. This pre supersonic flight barrier era theory was probably perpetuated by the Oil companies thinking ahead so they could bilk us for extra publicly funded Dilythium Crystal usage in the space age.

http://www.chaosmosis.net Michael Ricciardi

But what has that got to do with the price of corn in Kansas?

Seriously, I was unsure about approving this comment (and I might change my mind)…but your first point about the speed of light seems lacking in scientific rigor (even if one assumes that you are merely reversing the original light speed journey)….Regardless, this post was about the General Theory (gravity/space deformation, etc.)), not the Special Theory (speed of light)…as to your concluding thoughts…I think somewhere in the future a very fuzzy line between reality and fantasy was crossed….

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